


Perspective

by MLake867



Category: X-Men (Movieverse)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Romantic Soulmates, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, generic male character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-12
Updated: 2017-09-12
Packaged: 2018-12-26 20:03:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,342
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12066009
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MLake867/pseuds/MLake867
Summary: Raven's perspective on meeting her soulmate changed when her skin color did. How will it change when she meets him?





	Perspective

Raven sighed contentedly. It felt good to be outside, let her disguise drop, and just be herself. Not that it was that hard to keep up her default disguise (sort of like holding in her stomach) but keeping it up constantly got tedious.

Charles was stuck on part of his thesis and was being insufferably cranky about it, so she decided to get away and go hiking in a nature preserve. Between the isolation of the area she was in and the cold weather keeping people away, she didn’t expect to see (or more importantly, be seen) by anyone.

_If anyone is around, with my hood up they won’t get a good look before I can shift anyway. Still, I’d better be prepared. People must come around here sometimes. They wouldn’t have that emergency shelter I passed back there if they didn’t._

She walked on for a while, enjoying herself, when it started to rain. It quickly started coming down in buckets. She started running back the way she came. Even with the rain, the mid-morning sun leant plenty of light to see the trail by.

_Guess I’ll be needing that shelter myself._

Five minutes later, thoroughly soaked, she burst through the door of the shelter. There was someone else there already, looking right at her.

_He’s no Paul Newman, but he’s kind of cute. He looks a few years older than me. Why’s he staring? Oh. Oh, shitshitshit, I’m not disguised. Is he going to attack me?_

He looked startled and said “Oh. You’re blue… please forgive me for staring, it’s just…”

She froze as she recognized the words that had been on her upper arm since her birth. The first words her soul mate would ever speak to her. When she had been old enough to understand what they were, her mother had told her that they must mean that her soul mate would find her while she was sad, maybe even crying. “After all, he must have some reason to be staring” her mother had said.

Later, after her mutation turned her skin blue, her mother’s interpretation of her words had been… less encouraging. “Not even your soul mate is going to want a freak like you. He’ll see that you’re blue, he’ll stare and then he’ll run from you!” Her mother had yelled. Ever since then she had been dreading the day she would hear her words. Later, when she gained the ability to control her appearance, avoiding that rejection became one more reason why she didn’t let people see her in her true form.

Today she had let down her guard and here he was, staring at her… “Because I’m a hideous blue-skinned freak” she said, quietly as a few tears ran down her face.

His look changed to guilt and contrition. “No” he said, “Because I’ve been waiting to meet a blue-skinned girl for a long time. I couldn’t believe it when you walked in here.”

_Maybe he’ll want me if I show him what I can do._

“I don’t have to have blue skin,” she reassured him, changing to her default blonde disguise and running through a few other looks and hair colors before returning to her default. “I can look like any woman you want me to.” As she changed she remembered Charles’ advice that “with your gift, your soul mate won’t care that your natural form is blue.”

He was stunned. “That’s amazing.” He smiled uncertainly at her blonde form for a moment. “But the woman I want you to look like is you. Please change back to normal.”

_Normal? Did he just call my blue form “normal”?_

Seeing her confusion, he explained. “When you came in I found myself looking at the first blue-skinned woman I have ever seen… also the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.” She gave a slight gasp at that. “The blue made me think you might be my soul mate. I just couldn’t imagine someone so gorgeous saying my words… calling herself ‘a hideous freak,’ then you did.”

She hesitantly changed back to her blue form, hearing him whisper “that’s better.” Looking down, she said “if I’m so gorgeous like this, why do people scream at the sight of me.”

He crossed the tiny shelter to her and took her in his arms to comfort her. Slowly, she put hers around him too. After some thought, he said “I think they scream because they are afraid of what’s different. When people are afraid of you, they don’t even get to your looks. I’m sure anyone who isn’t afraid of you can appreciate the lovely shape and symmetry of your face, the pretty patterns your scales make, and how wonderfully the perfect blue shade of your skin contrasts with the red of your hair and eyes like stars in a twilight sky.”

_Oh, I am definitely keeping you. Just, please don’t want to be platonic._

Blushing (not that he could tell), she looked up at him and asked “so why aren’t you afraid”?

“Just because I’m a terrific person,” he deadpanned. He kept a straight face for a moment, and then grinned. He gave a quick sigh. “I wish I could say that was why, or that it’s just because I’m your soul mate. The truth is, it was the words themselves that did it. I’ve had time to get used to the idea that my soul mate would have blue skin. I’ve had my words since just before my fifth birthday,” he said. “When I first got them I was afraid… mainly of the ‘freak’ part” he grinned “I didn’t know the word ‘hideous’ until later. My mom looked at my words and said that she didn’t know why someone would have blue skin, or why she would call herself a hideous freak, but that regardless of looks I would belong with my soul mate and she would belong with me, if we both wanted to anyway. I think the words have made me a better person. I try not to judge people by their appearance, anyway.

“As I got older and started to be interested in girls, the same old boring skin colors were never that appealing. I knew that no one who looked like that was going to be the one for me. I kept looking for a girl with blue skin. I would have been yours even if you had been a hideous freak. So now that I’ve found you, my beautiful blue girl, why would I ever want you to hide yourself from me? I get why you’d want to hide from strangers who might attack you and I will love you in whatever form you take. That blonde version is very pretty, just kind of ‘vanilla’ for my tastes. So whenever we’re alone and it’s safe, I want to see my blue girl… if that’s OK with you.”

She felt her heart race faster. “You’re not just saying that? You really want me like this? When you first saw me, your only thoughts were that I was beautiful and might be your soul mate”? She thought she might break down and cry from relief as the weight of years dreading this moment started to lift.

He smiled. “I’m not just saying that. I really, really want you like this.” He leaned down and she stood straighter to meet his brief kiss, her first in her true form. It was gentle and sweet and left her wanting more. “As to my thoughts when you walked in, well…” and it was his turn to blush “I was also thinking ‘I wonder if those scales go all the way down?’”

_Guess platonic isn’t what he has in mind either._

She laughed and said “play your cards right and you’ll get to find out.” Their second kiss was longer and hungrier on both sides.

_I’m going to enjoy the look on Charles’ face when I tell him he was wrong. My soul mate does care that my natural form is blue. He likes it that way._

**Author's Note:**

> Just some Raven fluff because Raven soul mark stories seem rare. Which strikes me as odd actually, between the shape-shifting and the personal appearance issues, you'd think there'd be more of them. 
> 
> So far I know of (1) the "walking mirror" chapter of "Fate has a Twisted Sense of Humor" by CeliaEquus and (2) the "Not the Best Words to Have" chapter of "Fate has a Twisted Sense of Humor, Part Two." Both on this site. Seriously, if you like soul mark fics, look hers up. More than 100 short fics of all manner of pairings.
> 
> If you know of any others let me know.
> 
> Feel free to borrow or expand this. The male soulmate is pretty generic so it could be anyone you'd like.


End file.
